PONTIANAK – The government has to publish the details of the Covid-19 handling budget during the pandemic. This publication is a form of transparency as regulated in Law Number 14 of 2008 concerning Openness of Public Information. Moreover, there was already a Circular Letter Number 2 of 2020 from the Central Information Commission concerning Public Information Services in a Public Health Emergency Due to Covid-19.
“The government has to provide a special channel which is real time about the details of the budget used during the pandemic,” said the representative of Gemawan Institute, Sri Haryanti in the webinar ‘Budget Transparency in the Midst of Covid-19 Pandemic’ organized by Pontianak Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI) and Gemawan Institute, Friday (10/7/2020).
Meanwhile, currently, a number of regions only published the spread of the disease and the positive patients. Information programs are still minimal, whereas the budget spent is very large. Moreover, there is a central regulation which mandates that the policies in handling Covid-19 cannot be prosecuted.
“Even though the numbers are dynamic, they still have to be displayed since now everything is digital and data has to be updated even per minute, “he said.
If data transparency is not done, the community will have difficulty to oversee it even though this information is compulsory to be published.
“It is good to make joint actions to make use of the canal and open access to the public. The next step is the involvement of civil society organizations and journalists, “he said.
Publish Covid-19 Budget Details
The Mayor of Pontianak, Edi Rusdi Kamtono, confirmed that he would publish the use of the Covid-19 budget. Currently, the City Government has provided information channels for the actions and developments of the pandemic. Meanwhile, for budget matters, everything is still dynamic.
“This budget is moving, it will later be published, such as the APBD review which will annually be opened. However, this is an ongoing process in the DPRD. Our figures are still dynamic. For sure, every expenditure process has a mechanism because we are used to accountability,” he said.
He ensured that even though during Covid-19 the Central Government made it easy for reallocation, everything was under the supervision of the supervisory institutions. Institutions such as KPK, BPK, BPKP and APIP directly involved in overseeing them.
“KPK is also monitoring us, BPKP is also conducting a sampling. We admit that there are several points of doubling or overlapping but not many, because the data is moving. The task force from Kejari and the police are also involved in the cope,” he said.
Pontianak City Government itself has provided a budget of IDR 114 billion to handle this pandemic. However, not all of them are absorbed because they successfully control the spread of the disease. Currently, Pontianak has only one positive patient out of 118 patients in which five of them passed away. However, high mobility is feared to create new clusters or a second wave.
“If there are no more additional cases, the saved budget will be reallocated in the amended budget for economic recovery. The discussion is currently being carried out in Pontianak DPRD, “he stated.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Indonesian Ombudsman Representative for West Kalimantan, Agus Priyadi, said that his party has opened complaint posts in the regions regarding the handling of Covid-19. The complaints coming were various, starting from medical services for victims of Covid-19, transportation and security services, food cards, to social safety networks.
“Of all the complaints, all have been resolved. It is only that we cannot meet all expectations, such as students who asked for aids, but in fact they can go back hometown. Likewise, the credit relaxation mechanism which is still not understood by the public, “he said.
On the other hand, especially about the data collection of social safety net, it was complaint a lot. The people who were supposed to get it were absent from the data. In addition, there was a unique thing happened in the field, the rice distribution is equally distributed due to community protests.
“There were problems in terms of data collection of beneficiaries. Data collection had been conducted. Updating activity, according to BPS, are the duties of each regional government, “he said.
Source: Suara Pemred Kalbar Daily